Random story time! So I was hanging out with some lady friends a while ago and kind of at random one of 'em went and picked up this guy to hang out with us.

I didn't know him at all but we were all talking and it turns out he's 19 and of course I'm like "fuck fuck how is this my life" because its kind of weird to me to be hanging out socially with someone literally a decade younger than me. (He -didn't- make a cougar joke but it was a near thing and it's really good he didn't because hahaha oh you, I can't be a cougar if I'd rather set you on fire than have sex with you can I? Cuz that's all calling me a cougar will get you; me having to talk myself out of finding a lighter.)

Aaaaanyway, I digress.

My friend at one point makes the crack "Yeah so you should ask us all your questions about girls" and I'm groaning because no, god no, don't do the thing. She'd already giggled over the fact that guys like her cuz she's 'not like other girls' and look okay she's a really sweet person but she's got some shitty ideas I'm trying to gently talk her out of. She is also kind of young too but definitely older than 19 at least.

So this 19 year old's first and only question is "Why do girls do so much stuff with their hair when guys don't even care or notice."

I snorted loudly and said really slowly, "We don't do it for you."

Which, I think I get bonus points for at least some kindness and not immediately launching into a rant, right? Anyway he had no idea how to respond to that, like it hadn't even -occurred- to him that women might do things for reasons not completely revolving around men's opinions.

He's just a teen, I tell myself, he's a kid, a -baby-, don't get mad, just tell him the way of things.

Anyway, I left shortly after that. I only have so much control. I guess the moral of the story is that it's sometimes easy to forget what it was like to be that age. I mean I'm going to continue treating people who can speak like adults as adults because condescending to them won't help anything, but I need to remind myself over and over again that when I was that age, I appreciated kindness. The least I can do is pay it back._________________Samsally the GrayAce

Yeah, young people who are just at the age when they're bumping in to the idea that the world does not revolve around them can sometimes be trying. But your reaction was pretty much ideal. Hopefully, next time, someone else will take a turn to explain things.

In other news, someone I know sent me a link to this TEDx talk, which struck me as worth spreading around.

HERE ARE THE ACTUAL NUMBERS, BECAUSE THE PERSON RUNNING IT COMPLETELY FAILED TO REMOVE EMPTY ANSWERS OR CHECK WHETHER HE (p>90%) ACCIDENTALLY HELD THE ENTER KEY FOR 2500 ENTRIES BEFORE SPREADING BAD DATA OVER THE ENTIRE INTERNET.

Random story time! So I was hanging out with some lady friends a while ago and kind of at random one of 'em went and picked up this guy to hang out with us.

I didn't know him at all but we were all talking and it turns out he's 19 and of course I'm like "fuck fuck how is this my life" because its kind of weird to me to be hanging out socially with someone literally a decade younger than me. (He -didn't- make a cougar joke but it was a near thing and it's really good he didn't because hahaha oh you, I can't be a cougar if I'd rather set you on fire than have sex with you can I? Cuz that's all calling me a cougar will get you; me having to talk myself out of finding a lighter.)

Aaaaanyway, I digress.

My friend at one point makes the crack "Yeah so you should ask us all your questions about girls" and I'm groaning because no, god no, don't do the thing. She'd already giggled over the fact that guys like her cuz she's 'not like other girls' and look okay she's a really sweet person but she's got some shitty ideas I'm trying to gently talk her out of. She is also kind of young too but definitely older than 19 at least.

So this 19 year old's first and only question is "Why do girls do so much stuff with their hair when guys don't even care or notice."

I snorted loudly and said really slowly, "We don't do it for you."

Which, I think I get bonus points for at least some kindness and not immediately launching into a rant, right? Anyway he had no idea how to respond to that, like it hadn't even -occurred- to him that women might do things for reasons not completely revolving around men's opinions.

He's just a teen, I tell myself, he's a kid, a -baby-, don't get mad, just tell him the way of things.

Anyway, I left shortly after that. I only have so much control. I guess the moral of the story is that it's sometimes easy to forget what it was like to be that age. I mean I'm going to continue treating people who can speak like adults as adults because condescending to them won't help anything, but I need to remind myself over and over again that when I was that age, I appreciated kindness. The least I can do is pay it back.

It would have been more kind to tear the guy a new asshole.

Because at least then, he would know the truth of how you felt, and he would understand people better as a result.

It's like a teacher telling their students that they'll all have great fulfilling lives, rather than telling them the reality that they might not all make it, and they need to work harder.

99% male, 99% white. No surprises there.
84% strong conservative (not surprising), but 94% irreligious.
68% support legalizing weed and only 5% support same-sex marriage.
Most of them think men are disadvantaged socially (96%) and legally (98%).

A lot of the stupid can probably be traced back to this finding, though; 94% are between the ages of 17 and 25, with the vast majority being under 20 (91%). They are le teenagers.

So, using the data minus blanks, courtesy of Moor, those statistics are now:

68% are between the ages of 17 and 25, with a roughly even split (32 vs. 33) between the age brackets of [17-20] and [21-25].

The race/gender of the demographic is still roughly the same, but age, political affiliation, religious affiliation and supported issues is all over the place when you compare the two sets of data._________________Whatever happened to the heroes?